Mark St. Germain, who owns St. Germain and Associates on Main Street, said parking used to be easy in the public parking lot behind his business.

Not any more.

Since new businesses are moving in, it’s getting harder all the time.

St. Germain is one of many business owners in downtown Westbrook who think the city will have to add parking to the downtown to accommodate all the new businesses locating in the growing community. For his part, he’s happy the city has a new parking plan.

The Westbrook City Council recently approved a parking plan to use as a guide in coming years to ease parking troubles in the downtown. The plan includes metered parking spots, a city employee hired to enforce ticketing, more public lots and possibly a parking garage.

The city will look to implement the plan in steps over the next decade as more businesses locate to Westbrook and further crowd the city’s congested downtown parking lots.

Many, like St. Germain, who own businesses or work in the downtown, have expressed concerns recently that parking is inadequate, and will only get worse. According to city staff, expected growth could leave the city as much as 750 parking spots short in coming years.

“In order for the town to grow, we need to do something about the parking,” said Stephen Pate, investment representative at Edward Jones Investments on Main Street.

The parking plan will attempt to reorganize the city’s parking spots so that short-term parking is given priority in front of retail or service-oriented businesses.

Jessica Wietzell, a hairdresser at Le Salon on Main Street, said she’s in favor of more short-term parking along Main Street. She said the few parking spaces out front of Le Salon are usually taken up by people parking all day long.

“We get a lot of complaints from clients,” said Wietzel. “If we can’t have parking on the street, basically we go out of business.”

Portland Pie Co. employee and Westbrook resident Moriah Bedard is in favor of more short-term parking, as well, although she said parking for customers of Portland Pie isn’t much of a problem because of the proximity of the so-called CVS lot across Main Street. But, she said, it would be helpful for her when she’s doing her own shopping.

“When it’s convenient for me to go the bank, it’s convenient for everyone,” said Bedard, who lives on Spring Street. “I’d rather walk.”

Short-term parking availability is particularly a problem in front of the Dana Warp Mill, where the front parking spaces are often taken up all day by employees of businesses in the mill.

Allan Viernes, who owns the Greater Portland School of Jukado in the mill, said his business is directly affected by limited parking in the area. Most of his classes are held at night to accommodate his clients’ work schedules, and parking isn’t as much of a problem then.

However, Viernes said, he’d like to add more daytime classes, but wouldn’t until his clients could find close parking in the daytime. As it stands right now, he doesn’t think they would come.

“My growth in on a leash for the daytime,” he said.

River’s Edge Deli owner Steve Lampron agrees with Viernes, saying he thinks there are too many buildings in the area and not enough parking close by. “It’s a horror show,” said Lampron. “I’ve got people who park here (in the deli’s two short-term parking spots) all day.”

To alleviate some problems, the city may implement metered parking in the short-term parking spots within the next few years.

Ruby Peterson, an employee of Moonlight Cleaners on Main Street, said her clients would be put off by having to pay for metered parking.

“For people just dropping off for us to do their laundry, the meters probably wouldn’t work,” said Peterson. “People would probably frown at having to pay just to drop off laundry.”

Westbrook resident Dee Dee Richardson, a sales associate for Port City Graphics in the Dana Warp Mill, agreed, saying she wouldn’t like to see Westbrook install meters in the city.

“I think that Westbrook’s allure is that it’s a small town,” she said. “When you start going to meters, that’s big city.”

According to the city’s parking plan, long-term parking will be focused in areas farther away from buildings with retail space.

Richardson admits that finding short-term parking in front of businesses is a problem. She said clients of Port City Graphics usually have to find spots far away from the mill. Meanwhile, employees fight for parking out front if they get to the mill early enough, she said.

Most of the businesses that are customer-based would benefit from more short-term parking, said Viernes, but the city will need to add more long-term parking if it’s going to continue to actively attract more businesses.

“More long-term parking is something Westbrook really needs,” said Viernes, who, himself, avoids parking in front of the mill.

The city is looking to create new city lots in several spots downtown for employees of businesses and possibly a parking garage, if needed, some time in the next decade.

A parking garage could come on the other side of the river in the CVS lot. As part of its downtown parking plan, the city is looking to add, if necessary, a garage on the site that could add as many as 500 new parking spaces to the downtown.

Lampron said while he thought it would be an eyesore, the city might benefit from a parking garage. Otherwise, he said he didn’t know what the city should do to solve the problem.

Pate said he’d be in favor of a parking garage, as well, to anticipate the city’s business growth. “I think the parking garage is a good idea,” he said.

As far as St. Germain is concerned, a parking garage would help in the lot behind his business, in which parking is only getting harder. He said parking in the lot was easy before a new business, Current Publishing, which owns the American Journal, moved in next door at the end of the summer. Since then, St. Germain said, the parking lot is full on a regular basis.

St. Germain said he is in favor of the city’s new downtown parking plan because it seems to anticipate the types of situations he and his employees are experiencing now.

Mark St. Germain, owner of St. Germain and Associates on Main Street, looks out over the public parking lot behind his business, in which he said parking is becoming more and more difficult to find as new businesses move into the area.